How many people do you know that have built companies in Denmark, Russia, Poland, Belgium, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand? 

Boye is a pretty unique guy, with the remarkably unique perspective of someone who has started and mentored companies literally all around the world. People around the world have different cultures, different behaviours, different social norms, and for entrepreneurs this means different opportunities. What’s the one thing that stays the same for startups no matter where you are? People.

We cover a variety of interesting topics, including the importance of periodically disconnecting, the future of voice technology, why mobile is the biggest opportunity in Asia, how big corporations are disrupting startups, how and why Boye got into mentoring, and why it’s so important for founders to ask “why am I doing this?”

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From the outside, it seems like if your company has raised $33 million, you’ve “made it”. According to Ophir, that’s when the work really starts. Getting that money is just the first step, then you really have to build the product and deliver on the promises you made to get that money.

It’s a great insight, and it’s something Ophir has learned over his 20 years spent as entrepreneur. He started out building a platform to help people find roommates, went on to create the online financial service provider invest.com, and has now turned his attention to blockchain.

When Ophir advises other blockchain startups, he explains that it’s not about profit, it’s about building a community; a community that uses and values your token.

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How do you get an investor’s attention? When it comes to David his philosophy, for everything really, is to think about how you can add value. That’s why Network Society Ventures is a benefit corporation, which means they don’t just maximize profit, they also care deeply about producing positive outcomes on society. For example, they invested in a South African company called Sun Exchange, a crowdfunding platform for solar panels built on the blockchain – “streaming African sunshine into your digital wallet”.

David has also been involved in the artificial intelligence space for 30 years and is a member of the faculty and advisor at Singularity University, an initiative founded by futurist Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis, founder of the X Prize Foundation. He shares a lot of amazing insights into what makes a successful startup.

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Aegis is a non-profit that provides cooling vests to construction workers in the Middle East, who often work in environments in excess of 50 degrees Celsius. What makes the story of Adam and Aegis incredible is that he did not start with any resources or a master plan. He simply knew what he wanted to get done, and everytime he was presented with an obstacle, he found a way to jump over it.

Adam shares all kinds of great insights into building a startup. In particular he describes how to create a self sustainable social enterprise that does not live off of donor funding. He also has a great explanation for why people are the biggest killers of their own ideas, and how to overcome the analysis paralysis.

You can learn more about Adam and Aegis here.

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Serge originally started out building a company based on a software tool called Debugex. A random company agreed to pay him $4000 for a license, which made Serge think he was on to something, but 4-5 months later he realised they were probably the only customer in the world. Time for a pivot.

Enter ParseHub: a tool for web scraping that essentially turns websites into spreadsheets. Serge has a lot of interesting insights on how to build and run a company, including the danger of bringing on investors, an operational model he calls a benevolent dictatorship, and the belief that anyone can build a business more profitable than getting a job.

You can learn more about Serge and ParseHub here.

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Ryan Church is the founder and CEO of BiomeRenewables, a company that is driven by biomimetic innovation – solving problems by studying how nature has solved them. Biomimicry is not easy, or obvious, but it has produced some remarkable designs, including velcro and the beak of the bullet train.

Ryan first got his environmental drive by watching Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”, and the idea of harnessing the power of the natural world captured his imagination. We talk about all kinds of cool things, including VCs, Boston Dynamics, the future of energy, and how to write patents on your own!

You can learn more about Ryan here.

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Mike knows people like to talk about the numbers around acquisitions, but according to him, it’s all about strategic fit. Once his company got acquired for a second time, it was time to move on and try something new. He took some time to detach, travel across Canada with his family, and now he’s back to starting from scratch.

Mike is a pro at building teams and companies, and share a lot of insight into how to build a successful organization. We also have a lot of fun talking about other aspects of running a business, like the challenge of picking a name and the insanity of domain name hunting!

You can learn more about Mike and his new company, MKB Strategy, here.

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JC is the founder of YoungLeaders, an organization that brings together teen achievers and exposes them to entrepreneurship through various events, including hacksprints where they go inside companies and develop products. He knows just about everything you can think of when it comes to entrepreneurship. Oh, and he’s 17 years old.

Jean-Christoph (JC) Btaiche is not your typical teenager. 

He grew up in the Middle East, and as a kid he continually built stuff. He wanted to make an impact, and he’s getting his feet wet by starting YoungLeaders, while also reading everything he can get his hands on, and working towards building a revolutionary startup idea. He has a lot of great thoughts on learning, failing, leadership, expert generalists, and so much more! 

You can learn more about JC and YoungLeaders here.

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John Pineau is the creator of TheOZZShow, a platform that creates MiniMovies to showcase corporate missions and visions in a way that humanizes them; gives them a soul. He has a vision for a concept called UniversalWealth, where corporations fund innovators to generate wealth.

John holds a Masters Degree in City Planning, and served as an economic planner for several years before pursuing his passion to become an entrepreneur. As John describes it, being an entrepreneur is a part of him, and that’s what motivates his standard 3 am work sessions, a sentiment many entrepreneurs can relate to. 

A husband and father to two university students, John has experienced his fair share of struggles, including his business bank account being robbed by a national bank. He converted this experience into a positive for others by creating universal wealth, MiniMovies to shape it with entrepreneurs, and by writing WealthGuides to share it with the world.

You can learn more about universal wealth, TheOZZshow.com, and WealthGuides here.

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Jose was a university student excited about entrepreneurship when he joined a biotech startup, ready to execute an exit strategy and become a millionaire, until the founder refused to sign his ownership papers and showed him the door. His perspective on entrepreneuship has changed since then, but his passion hasn’t.

Jose Fulgencio is the founder of LDMS media, and educational media and technology startup. He is deeply entrenched in education, as a student, a teacher, and entrepreneur, and has lots of interesting insights on the future of education, and why he thinks students shouldn’t be paying $300 for textbooks.

Jose’s dream originally was to be a political science professor, until he took a course in entrepreneurship, and has never looked back. He’s been through some of the lowest lows of entrepreneurship, but hasn’t given up, and that’s what really makes him inspiring.

You can learn more about Jose here.

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